Event

"Critical Resource: The Economics of the Internet Addressing-Routing Space"

Professor Milton Mueller, Syracuse University

Lunch Talk

Institution(s): HK Institute of Economics and Business Strategy, The Hong Kong Centre for Economic Research, Faculty of Business and Economics

Date: Jun 28, 2011 (Tuesday)

Time: 12:00 noon - 01:00 pm

Venue: Conrad Hotel, 88 Queensway, Admiralty, Hong Kong

Fee: HK$800 per person

Contact: Ms. Angelina Hung (atmhung@hku.hk; 2547-8472)

Abstract:

Address space exhaustion is one of the most serious and immediate problems that the Internet faces today. Internet addressing and routing are often treated as technical subjects that are difficult to understand for laymen. Their discussion is couched in terms that are not always apparently economic in nature. But these technical discourses, laden with acronyms, are deeply economic in nature. They embrace the most difficult subject matters in economics - situations where markets are alleged to have failed to function efficiently and therefore fairly. They are the issues of managing scarcity, handling externalities and switching costs, overcoming the failures of common pool resources, avoiding a tragedy of the commons, and negotiating conflicts over the distribution of costs. The internet is often seen as the Wild West, where there are no rules and regulations, a place before the emergence of civilization and civil society, a place without governance, like the Hobbesian state of nature. Interestingly to address these problems the Internet has evolved governance institutions native to the Internet to provide workable solutions. Addressing and routing is a central issue in Internet governance.

Professor Milton Mueller of Syracuse University returns to Hong Kong to discuss these issues and their relevance to the industry and to Hong Kong in terms that can be understood by non-technical experts. He shall focus on the new IPv6 address space, and analyze the standards, policies and fee structures that are starting to be applied to IPv6. He shall identify and consider some of the open issues regarding IPv6 might raise new policy issues and alter some of the economic and institutional pillars supporting the current address management regime. Professor Mueller is a leading authority on telecommunications policy. His pioneering research on Hong Kong's telecommunications policy over 20 years ago contributed critically to the ending of Hong Kong Telecom's monopoly franchise over international telecommunication.

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To register, please fill in the registration form and send it to us by fax to 2548 6319 or by email to hkcer@econ.hku.hk)